Interviewed by Afua Osei, Director of External Relations
Dr Amel Ibrahim is an academic clinician, surgeon, and biotech founder whose career exemplifies the global impact of the Fulbright program. After earning her degree in medicine alongside immunobiology & pathology from Imperial College London, she completed a PhD in regenerative medicine at University College London in parallel with core surgical training. Her ground breaking research focuses on combining computational biology, nanotechnology, and stem cell biology to engineer personalized bone implants for children with craniofacial defects.
Awarded a Fulbright scholarship to advance her work in biotechnology and healthcare innovation at New York University (NYU), Dr Ibrahim has since founded Bioworkshop, a Harlem-based biotech start-up developing human-relevant drug discovery platforms. She is also the founder of the UK-based telehealth platform City Skin Clinic.
I sat down with Dr Ibrahim to discuss her journey from academic surgery to biotech entrepreneurship, the cultural differences between the UK and US start-up ecosystems, and her public engagement work.
Your background seamlessly connects surgery, immunobiology, and tissue engineering. How did your early research lead to the work you are doing today?
Dr Amel Ibrahim: My research naturally grew out of the clinical challenges I saw in plastic surgery, particularly around craniofacial defects and burns. The existing technologies for tissue replacement and healing were significantly limited. Immunobiology is fundamental to this field because transplant success hinges on how the body accepts or rejects tissues.
During my PhD at UCL and subsequent fellowship, my research focused on tissue engineering—specifically using computer modelling, 3D imaging, and CT scans to predict surgical outcomes and model how craniofacial diseases affect a child’s face over time. That foundation in tissue engineering and disease modelling directly inspired the creation of a company, Bioworkshop; its central idea pivots around creating bio-engineered human tissues that researchers can use as realistic platforms for testing new therapeutics, making drug R&D faster, safer, and more accurate.
When you moved to New York City as a Fulbright scholar, did you always intend to launch a biotech company?
Dr Amel Ibrahim: Not at all. I had always pictured myself as an enterprising academic surgeon—maintaining a clinical career, conducting research, and perhaps running a side venture or collaborating with industry.
However, NYC has a galvanizing energy. Being at NYU put me in one of the world's leading craniofacial surgical departments, where they are doing incredible work in facial modelling. I also met surgeon-scientists, academics, and doctors who were actively building companies. Seeing that overlap redefined what was possible for me. I began to realize that staying purely on an academic path might limit the speed and scale at which I could deploy disruptive technologies.
Most biotech founders naturally gravitate toward established hubs like Boston or Silicon Valley. What made you choose New York City?
Dr Amel Ibrahim: While Boston is undeniably a more mature biotech ecosystem, New York offered something unique. Aside from NYU’s clinical strengths in craniofacial surgery, the broader intellectual and cultural ecosystem in NYC gave me the space to think outside my immediate discipline. It’s vibrant, fast-paced, and offers access to an incredible cross-section of industries. Plus, having lived in London, New York felt like a natural parallel. Today, Bioworkshop operates out of a start-up incubator with dedicated lab space right in Harlem, which has been a fantastic base for us.
Was there a pivotal moment during your Fulbright experience that accelerated your transition into entrepreneurship?
Dr Amel Ibrahim: A major turning point was attending a Fulbright Association entrepreneurship showcase in Seattle. I met Fulbrighters working across AI ethics, global health, and novel chemical compounds, as well as ecosystem builders working to establish venture infrastructure in places like Eastern Europe. Seeing that collective drive confirmed for me that problem-solving doesn't have to stop at the laboratory door.
Shortly after, NYU extended my visa so I could set up a stem cell research program focused on tissue, bone, and cartilage development. The momentum built from there.
You maintain strong ties to the UK—your PhD supervisor from UCL sits on your advisory board, and you run City Skin Clinic in the UK. How would you compare the entrepreneurial environments in the US versus the UK?
Dr Amel Ibrahim: The depth of technical talent in the UK is world-class; institutions like Imperial and UCL are doing brilliant work. However, the commercial mindset differs significantly. In the UK, a surgeon or specialist stepping out of clinical practice to become a tech founder is often viewed as a radical leap of faith. In the US, it's normalized—and encouraged.
The US ecosystem simply offers access to more capital, greater resources, and a deeply ingrained risk tolerance. That is why you see so many British and continental European biotech founders coming to the US to scale their ventures. That said, I remain deeply committed to bridging both worlds and maintaining active research collaborations back in the UK.
You operate at an intersection where women remain underrepresented—data shows women make up only ~16% of UK surgeons and roughly 20% of biotech C-suite leaders. What has that experience been like for you?
Dr Amel Ibrahim: It frequently means being a "minority of a minority." During my time at NYU, I was the only woman in my computational biology and nanotech department, and I’m currently the only female founder in my start-up incubator. What makes this disparity striking is that women enter life sciences and biochemistry degrees in equal numbers to men, but the pipeline narrows dramatically at the leadership level.
How do we begin to change those numbers for the next generation?
Dr Amel Ibrahim: The most effective way to drive systemic change is through visible leadership, active mentorship, and creating concrete opportunities. I spend time speaking at local schools—like participating in Harlem Science Day—to show young children, particularly girls, that careers in surgery and biotechnology are entirely within reach. We need to model what success looks like, actively mentor in biosciences, and build companies that recruit and champion talent from day one.